A short video conversation (by James Laughlin) about leadership responses when someone "shuts down"—either quietly withdrawing or having an emotional meltdown. The speakers argue that the common impulse to push harder fails because a dysregulated person is operating from the amygdala (fight/flight/freeze) and is not in a teachable state.
What do we get taught to do from a leadership perspective when someone's shutting down in front of you? Now, shut down can be quiet, like, we're just not opting in now. Or it can be loud, as in a meltdown or, you know, someone yelling or becoming dysregulated. We get taught to push harder, right?
So we start. What are you doing? What you're doing Nothing. What are you doing? You got to get moving. This task is like, we've got to get doing it. Like, what are you doing?
Like, we get taught to push. And when you push against a closed brain, you are pushing that person into fire, freeze or form. It's not going to go well. And they are dysregulated. And at dysregulated moments are not teachable moments. So they're gone into their monkey brain, into their amygdala. They're offline.
